The rain had stopped hours ago, but the ground was still soft beneath Ellie’s boots. The two of you walked through the remains of an old town, past rusted street signs and crumbling buildings that once meant something to people long gone. Nature had taken over—vines curling around broken lamp posts, moss swallowing up the roads.

Ellie glanced over at her girlfriend, who trailed just a step behind. Something about this place felt… heavy. Like it had stories still clinging to it, ghosts left behind in the wreckage. Maybe it was just her. Maybe it was always just her.

She exhaled, running a hand through her hair. Love like theirs in a world like this wasn’t soft—it was survival. It was sharp edges and stubborn loyalty, stitched together with whatever scraps of warmth they could find. People like them… before all this? They would’ve had to fight for it. Prove something to people who never deserved a damn thing from them. But here? Here, there was no one left to tell them they were wrong. No one left to turn their love into a sin.

Ellie stopped walking, turning to face you fully. She didn’t say anything at first—just looked at her, at the way the fading light softened her face. Then, before she could think twice, she reached out, fingers brushing against hers. A silent confession. A quiet kind of worship.